So long, and thanks for all the fish

I’m sad to announce I’ll soon be leaving the Centre for Youth Literature, with my last day here being Friday 20 May. It has been an honour to work for an organisation that champions the benefits of reading for pleasure, and supports the voices and views of young adults. I am however, very excited to have the opportunity to shift into supporting and advocating for LGBTIQA young people, working with Geelong’s Adolescent Sexuality Project (GASP).

I have loved working with the Centre for Youth Literature for the last five years, and I will be taking so many great memories with me – most of which involve meeting and working with wonderful people, both in person and online. The youth literature community is beautiful, with so many people passionate about getting great books into the hands of Australian teens. It has also been a privilege to work with, and publish writing by, so many talented young readers – superstars, the lot of them.

L-R: Inky Awards Judges Lauren, Angus, and Vinhara, with Jordi Kerr

In the last 5 years the Centre for Youth Literature has:

Run 519 in-person sessions, with over 30,000 total attendances

Had three-quarter of a million visits to our digital community

Grown our social media community by over 9,000 people

Had 129% increase in Inky Awards teen voting

And, in the last 3 years, we’ve worked with 176 writers and speakers… a quarter of whom were teens.